This invention relates generally to the art of making crusts for food products and, more particularly, to apparatus for forming crusts for food products, either baked or chilled. In still more particular reference, the present invention is concerned with a crust former for constructing crusts in pans and like containers from a mass of crust material placed within the container for this purpose.
Food products, heated or chilled, are ever popular food items, and for this reason are produced in great quantities both commercially in large scale production for subsequent retail use and sale, and domestically, essentially on an individual basis, in the kitchen of the homemaker. A component of such baked and/or refrigerated goods is the crust which is present along the bottom and/or side walls of many such food products, and although various types of crusts may be provided, one that is often preferred is known as a "crumb crust". Crusts of this type may constitute an admixture of a crumb base (graham cracker or crushed grain flakes, for example) and a binder that enables the admixture to be worked and to maintain a crust shape imposed thereon.
As would be expected, apparatus of various structural and functional varieties has been proposed to facilitate and mechanize the work of forming such crusts including compression mechanisms in which a quantity of dough or other crust material is compressed between two die elements to force the crust material into the shape of the forming dies; rotatable mechanisms in which centrifugal force of sufficient magnitude is developed to cause the mass of crust material to spread outwardly from a spatially fixed center; and combinations of these two techniques in which both compressive force and centrifugal force are exerted against a semifluid crust material to enforce a predetermined crust shape thereon. Apparatus of this type has utility in commercial application, but is not suitable for domestic use, and whereas it tends to function satisfactorily with certain crust materials, such as pastry dough, it has undesirable limitations as respects other crust materials in either a domestic or commercial application.
I have heretofore proposed a device for use in forming crusts within pie pans and like containers, and such device constitutes the subject matter of my U.S. Pat. No. 3,451,359 which issued June 24, 1969. The crust shaper disclosed in such patent produces satisfactory results in most instances, and demonstrates a functional principle of undisputed integrity.